Le fantôme dans la machine – A Duceppe production

Invited to the set of a TV show, Rousse gets the surprise of her life: the team has arranged a reunion with her brother, whom she hasn’t seen in 29 years. The problem is that he died in a fire in 1997. Is it a hallucination? A skit in poor taste? Are they trying to destabilize her to make “good TV”? But then her brother shows up in other improbable places to see how she is doing, continue a conversation, tease her as he always did… Through these conversations, Rousse sees the life she could have had if her brother had survived the tragedy or, rather, the many versions of those unlived lives that proceed in parallel in the universe of possibilities. These discoveries raise troubling questions: would she be prepared to renounce her current life to keep her beloved brother with her?

Directed by Alexia Bürger (Les Hardings, Les filles du Saint Laurent, Camera obscura), the childhood friend of playwright Fanny Britt (Bienveillance, Hurlevents, Classique(s)), with whom she has shared a prolific artistic collaboration, this “auto-science-fiction” tale blurs the lines between reality and fiction while exploring the various ways the deceased continue to inhabit the living. Somewhere between intimate confession and dramatic invention, both autobiographical and pure fabrication, this work on the power of the imagination examines how writing and the stage can replay a life’s founding drama. With bitter-sweet irony, Britt and Bürger lead us through an experience where memory blends with theatrical illusion to explore the stories we choose to believe in.

Performance: Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Patrice Dubois, Simon Lacroix and Christophe LevacDramaturgy: Chloé Gagné DionDirector’s assistant: Stéphanie Capistran-LalondeSet and lighting: Martin LabrecqueCostumes: Elen EwingMusic: Philippe BraultAccessories: Julie MeasrochHair and makeup: Justine Denoncourt-Bélanger

In collaboration with Place des Arts

Presented by MIFO